Wow, striking! This will definitely draw attention at the newsstands. I don't like the angle, but the styling looks great. And I'm over Nicki's permanently fierce expression, so this slightly softened look and faint smile looks refreshing. Don't listen to her music, but one can't deny she's rather beautiful and Elle did that justice here!

Also mad about the newfound fashion prestige for US Elle! It's obviously all on Gan, but this is a nice little coup for them. I like that he kept Karl for Nicki and not Kendall (done before), Kim (same) or Charlize (Dior.)

When ELLE creative director Stephen Gan approached Nicki Minaj with the idea of being photographed by fashion legend Karl Lagerfeld, the rapper nearly lost her mind. “I wanted to cry,” says Minaj, who flew to Paris in April for the cover shoot. “All I do is wear Chanel.” The duo had met once before, at a dinner thrown by Gan, “but it wasn’t like we became best friends at that dinner. He was cordial and nice, and we took pictures. But this time I felt like he and I grew up together. Like we were BFFs.” Lagerfeld shot Minaj at Studio 7L in Paris’s Seventh Arrondissement. “He made himself so available to me,” she says. “I thought he was going to be a snob, but in fact, he was so personable, looking me in my eyes and asking me, ‘Do you like this?’” Minaj’s favorite setup, pictured above, is an instant classic. “Karl was sleeping on the couch, and Stephen said, ‘Walk up to him, and try to wake him up.’ I had on this really sexy dress, so I walked up to him and he opened his eyes, and I was looking at him all Marilyn Monroe–type, and everybody in the room started shouting, ‘Stay, stay, take this picture, take this picture.’ It’s so iconic. After that, I couldn’t think straight anymore. I was like, Oh my God, I couldn’t…it felt like a dream.”

What a disappointing ed. On what planet is that shot of her with Karl “Iconic”?!!! Please, spare me the hyperbole!!

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I like the picture for different reasons - Cleopatra incarnate staring over an ageing Robin. But overall forgettable. It's nice for her to have this shoot on her resume, but she should rather get back to working with Klein now.

Can't think of a worst combination. That pic of Minaj and Karl is probably the epitome of everything i find aesthetically repulsive in fashion. It's like they are lifeless. I can't see that the trend surgically constructed women shows no signs of abating.

LOVE the cover, but the editorial is a let down. Nicki is not high fashion at all. She’s just fashion. Plus, the cover doesn’t go along with the ed. And I don’t like the tag line on the cover, because she was never the queen of rap.